From the Editors April 16, 2012 Issue

Unified in service to God

The Editors

The beauty of a garden, a desert, a rain forest, or coral reef isn’t only in the diversity of creation on display; it’s the fact that this incredible diversity of creation is unified into a single, working ecosystem.

People, too, display wonderful diversity. We all have different points of view, different backgrounds, different experiences. Unifying a diverse group of individuals into a single organization furnishes the organization with great strength and potential. The Bible describes Peter’s acknowledgment of Jesus as the Messiah, as the foundation of the Christian Church (see Matthew 16:16–18). As a follower of Jesus’ teachings, the Apostle Paul built a sturdy temple on that foundation. Taking several trips around the Mediterranean, Paul unified people of incredible diversity and background into the beginnings of the Christian Church. 

A good portion of the Bible’s New Testament consists of the letters Paul wrote to these relatively new churches. Here is a quote from one of them: “Ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). Grandly, this precious idea has survived to guide us today. People in this present time are standing on the shoulders of Paul and those early Christians, “in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” In the ways the Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon became unified by what became Christianity in order to serve God and mankind, we all today have the same opportunity to enjoy pronounced spiritual strength from our unity.

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